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Due to several differences of opinion with staff, I am choosing to no longer do business on this forum. Everyone that has a pending order will need to contact me via email at [email protected] Thanks,
-Tom&Tricia

I'll normally get one dry fire a week right after cleaning. Its a Savage Mark II. I cringe every time too. But I'm OCD about having a cocked gun. Maybe someone can tell me its ok to leave my 22 cocked after I clean it and put it away...lol

Its not necessary to dry fire my Savage MkII in order to lower the striker. Just pull the trigger as you ease the bolt forwards and turn it home, the cocking cam does the rest.

My Savage does not have the Accutrigger, so if those triggers have some effect on the normal operation then things might be different.
Few if any turn bolt rifles require dry firing to lower the striker.

PS
I've repaired a dozen or more handguns with firing pins damaged by dry firing. Excessive dry firing can also wear away at the opening in the breech face of both handguns and rifles. Excessive clearance of a worn firing pin hole, coupled with upturned edges of the hole, can result in blown primers with a disc like piece of primer cup driven into the firing pin hole.
This can cause breakage of the firing pin shaft with the broken shaft and cocking piece driven out of the bolt to impact the shooter's face.

__________________
Due to several differences of opinion with staff, I am choosing to no longer do business on this forum. Everyone that has a pending order will need to contact me via email at [email protected] Thanks,
-Tom&Tricia

Last edited by hogdogs; December 6, 2012 at 10:44 AM.
Reason: Removed image

When I was a young deputy I was cleaning my revolver (A Colt with a free floating fireing pin) one day just before time to leave for work. I closed the cylinder, pulled the trigger and the fireing pin broke off and flew out the end of the barrel. It was time to walk out the door to work and it was the only hand gun I had. I reported in with a loaded but in-operable firearm.

When I went on the road I drove straight to a gun shop. He didn't have a new pin, but he kindly loaned me a gun until mine was fixed. Since then, if I don't have snap caps in the right calibre I double check them and put spent casings in to dry fire.

Very few days go by that I don't dry fire something, AR and 1911 are the most common ones as they are the handiest. In college on a rifle team we dry fired target rifles (Anschutz 64) thousands of times, neve had any problems there either. While I don't make it a continuous habit on rimfires I do dryfire them occasionally also. The next time I break a firing pin or damage something will be the first time.

I dry fire my Sig all the time. Dry fire, especially in front of the mirror working from the holster, is one of the best way to develop consistent presentation and muscle memory. Key is to make sure the weapon is empty....have known folks who forgot the unload part. I do believe that if you have a snap cap it takes some of the stress off the firing pin more in some guns than others.

I've broken two firing pin noses: One a Model 13, the other a M66. One broke at the range and wasn't related to dry firing. The other--don't know when it broke, but the smithie saw a "problem" with the way the hammer aligned with the slot, and fixed it.

Broke a firing pin on a SIG P239. Don't know when it broke--it still fired with the broken pin. The folks at SIG (back when you could actually talk to a real gunsmith) said to use snap caps. The firing pin can break because if it doesn't hit something it "wants to keep going".

I use A-Zooms. Don't care for the brass kind with the spring. I've found pieces of brass in my trigger mechanisms. Empty shell casing in revolvers work ok for short term. Very short term, they become useless after a few strikes.

A note on dry firing. It teaches you how to pull the trigger properly, and that's good, but it does NOT teach you about anticipating recoil and flinching. It teaches what you should do, but you still have to apply it during live fire. The cure for recoil anticipation and flinching is the very widely known (but not always practiced) principle of concentrating on the front sight until the shot breaks.

Which, it should be emphasized, is a good thing! The whole object of the exercise is to learn not to associate either of those things or any other thing that disturbs the sight picture with pressing the trigger.

Some people dry fire in hopes to eventually get a better feeling trigger pull, I personally don't dry fire unless its to check trigger weight and or feel, so I do dry fire but rarely, if I feel the need for a better trigger I either do a true trigger job or replace the trigger with a quality after market like a timney, jewel, rifle basix, jard. The last thing I would do is sit and dry fire away! To each his own

The dry firing was conducted with a pencil with tape around it so that it did not rattle in the barrel. When the hammer fell it launched pencil into a target taped to a wall which was 2 inches in front of the barrel.

The pencil made a mark which allowed us to see exactly what we were doing. If the tape was properly applied we would achieve groups of 1/8 to 1/4 inches. Flyers were obvious.

I dry-fire the gun that I'm currently getting used to. The trigger is part of it, but the way you hold while firing also gets a workout.

When first I took my new BLR '81 home, the trigger was less than delightful, being a bit hard and gritty. - So I practiced dry-firing at a knot hole on the tree outside my shop, through the window three or four times a day, three or four dry-fires each time. After a couple of weeks, the trigger was much smoother, and I was adjusted too... I got used to how it worked and how to hold the rifle by then, and the crosshairs were right on target whenever the hammer fell.

Part of dry-firing is to call your shots. That's what Bell was doing, out in the African bush.

Now, if I ever have to shoot a knothole through the window of my shop, I know that I'll probably nail it, first time!

Seriously; The dry-fire practice with the BLR not only smoothed up the trigger, but also has given me a bit more confidence about hitting things with that gun, and taught me the best way to hold it for accuracy. It is intended for hunting, so confidence and proper handling is a big factor, there.

I dry-fire my shotgun too, a nice over/under and you betcha I use snap caps in that gun. Something about the way it sounds when I dry-fire it without a snap cap tells me that it needs them.

The manual to my Ruger Mk III says it's OK to dry-fire, but I try my best to avoid dry-firing rimfires anyway.

Is it just a personal preference? It almost seems like those who don't dry fire are judgmental about those of us that do! (I mean no disrespect)

It just seems like every time this topic comes up - on forums or real life - people who don't do it make me feel like a bad gun parent! The responses are always like, "Well, IIII don't do it." The "you will go blind" comment is actually a great analogy about how it makes me feel! Like someone telling me that THEY don't do it. I usually react one of two ways: (to both scenarios, lol)

1.) You think you're better than me?!
Or
2.) Well you should try it, it's great.

I will say that I'm absolutely new to firearms (just a few months of research and one full week of gun ownership now!), but I don't really understand why not to dry fire modern, center fire pistols. Especially since many specify in the manual that it's perfectly safe.

I am really asking, btw! I know it sounds snarky, I don't mean it that way! I really would like to know why those of you who don't do it are so set against it.

Most of us shoot a .22 Rimfire as our first real firearm. A lot of designs, especially older ones, allow the firing pin to strike the forward end of the rim headspace recess. This can damage either the pin or the chamber (tools to iron out chambers inwardly upset by this are available). Some newer designs, like the Ruger pistols, have a firing pin stop in the bolt to prevent the pin reaching quite that far, but one is always best advised to use a snap cap in a rimfire.

Some older centerfire designs are also not strong in the firing pin. I remember about twenty-five years ago my dad had a .380 FIE pistol that he dry fired once. Just once. When he did, it made a "tink" sound, and the tip of the firing pin fell out of the muzzle. Firing pin too brittle and stopping on a sharp internal shoulder in the slide. Fortunately, he was able to get a replacement, and I still have that pistol today, but I wouldn't dry fire it without a snap cap in place.

I have dry fired all my guns all my life, some for practice others because after cleaning, etc. I don't like leaving them cocked. I have never damaged one. Not saying it can't just it has never happened to me.

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